A final note on the Supreme Court's defamation ruling

By Ezra Levant on June 29, 2008 5:43 PM | | |

I read my friend Debbie Gyapong's concerns here and here about the Supreme Court's recent ruling that expands the scope of fair comment in defamation law. As I wrote on Friday, the ruling tilts the law further towards free speech, including "outrageous" and "ridiculous" speech. As someone who is sometimes accused of both, I'm naturally pleased!

Debbie focussed on the fact that in the actual case that led to this decision, the plaintiff, Kari Simpson, was a Christian conservative, who had been likened to Nazis by the defendant, Rafe Mair, on his radio show. The judges said that might be extreme, but it's a fair comment. (That is distinct from a statement of fact. If Mair had said that Simpson was a member of the Nazi Party -- a false statement of fact, not a fair comment on a true fact -- then the defence of fair comment wouldn't apply.)

Debbie's worried that this might mark the start of open season on Christians, in terms of defamation. I have a few thoughts in response.

1. When was the last time a Christian sued an anti-Christian for defamation? I think it's exceedingly rare. So I don't think this SCC decision will suddenly stop Christians from suing in defamation law -- they weren't doing so frequently in the first place.

2. Anti-Christian bigotry was going full tilt before this ruling. I don't think this ruling will increase it. Defamation law, until this point, hadn't really been a barrier to Christophobia.

3. What this ruling will do is allow for, in general, more criticism of everything. In the present (and in the future) the defamation plaintiffs have been and will be anti-Christians, and often Muslim radicals.
 
I predict that in the next decade, the people accused of being "ridiculous" or "outrageous" in court will much more likely be Christians and conservatives than liberals or atheists -- or Muslims. It's already happening, whether the censorship is from human rights commissions or nuisance defamation lawsuits. 

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This page contains a single entry by Ezra Levant published on June 29, 2008 5:43 PM.

Bernie "Burny" Farber converts to Islam was the previous entry in this blog.

Who's Fr. de Valk? is the next entry in this blog.

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